TLW 111 - Nomads Results

Author! Author!
Marvellous descriptive powers, impenetrable plots, grotesque
yet sometimes oddly touching characters - reading Dickens is
like being borne along on a very energetic river, sometimes
wishing you had a bit more control over where it was taking
you. Here are some perhaps less familiar words that you will
meet in his work.
bagwig a black hair wig carried in a small silk bag.
barouche a four-wheeled hooded carriage.
beadle a minor parish official whose duties include preserving
order at services and sometimes civil functions. Some
parishes hired them to run the workhouse after the 1834
New Poor Law was passed, as was the case with Bumble,
the beadle in Oliver Twist.
Charles Dickens
biffin a kind of apple, often baked and flattened into a cake.
blucher a strong leather half-boot, named after Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher (1742-
1819), the Prussian field-marshal at Waterloo.
bootjack a device used to remove boots.
brazier a large flat pan filled with coals, used as a heater.
bridewell a house of correction, a jail (contraction of St. Bridget's Well in London, site of
a prison until 1869).
burgess a town magistrate or government official.
caul a membrane that surrounds a foetus, believed to protect against drowning. David
Copperfield was born with a caul, which was then advertised for sale.
chandler originally a maker or seller of candles, later a small grocer.
chouse to cheat.
cotillion, cotillon a lively ballroom dance.
dreadnought, dreadnaught a closely-woven thick woollen material (now more often used
to mean a battleship).
ecod a mild oath on par with, and probably derived from, 'My God'. This was a favourite
expression of Jonas Chuzzlewit in Martin Chuzzlewit.
equipage equipment used in relation to horse and carriage.
fagin an adult who instructs others in crime, from the character of that name in Oliver
Twist.
gammon a misleading or deceptive comment; (verb) to perpetrate a hoax on.
gingham a clothing fabric usually of yarn-dyed cotton.
hogshead a large cask or barrel, equal to 521/2 imperial gallons.
hostler, ostler one who tends horses at an inn. Hugh is hostler at the
Maypole in Barnaby Rudge.
laudanum a mixture of opium and alcohol used as a tranquilizer,
pain-killer, or to induce sleep.
lucifer a match made of a sliver of wood tipped with a combustible substance,
and ignited by friction. First manufactured in the 1830's.
lummy excellent: LUMMIER, LUMMIEST.
nankeen, nankin a pale yellowish cotton cloth, also trousers made
from this cloth. [From Nanking in China].
negus a liquor made from wine, water, sugar, nutmeg, and lemon-juice.
oakum loosely twisted hemp fibres, impregnated with tar, used in rope. Picking oakum
apart was a common task in prisons and workhouses: the separated oakum was then
used to caulk ships. Oliver picked oakum at the workhouse in Oliver Twist.
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patten a device attached to the bottom of lady's shoes to keep them out of the mud in the
streets, sometimes consisting of circular metal rings which caused a distinctive sound
on the pavement.
peacoat a short double-breasted navy blue or black overcoat worn by seamen.
phaeton an open four-wheeled carriage.
pompey to pamper.
postern a back entrance.
postilion, postillion one who guides a horse-driven coach by riding on the left-hand lead
horse.
potboy an employee at a tavern who served beer to customers.
quadrille a card game played by four people.
recusant one who refused to attend Church of England services.
scrivener a professional scribe or copier.
surtout a double-breasted, full-skirted, close-bodied suit.
tumbrel, tumbrel an open cart which tilted backwards to empty its load. Used to carry prisoners
to the guillotine during the French Revolution, as in A Tale of Two Cities.
turnkey a jailor. John Chivery was turnkey at the Marshalsea prison in Little Dorrit.
turnpike a toll road.
vintner a wine merchant.
waterman one who operated boats on the Thames carrying passengers for a fee.
worrit to worry, annoy.
Blank Racks
Add a blank to each of the following eight racks to make a total of twenty-six eight-letter
words, with the blank being a different letter in each case. An intermediate solution
is available on page 35 showing the values the blank must take in each case but not giving
the actual anagrams.
AADIKNR ABEENRT AAEJRSS CEOOPSW
AAENRTU EIKNSTU AAGHKMN EIMOPRU
Curio Corner
Normally, adverbs ending in -LY do not have comparative or superlative forms e.g. one
says “more glibly”, not GLIBLIER*. Some of those words that appear to be exceptions
prove on investigation to be the comparative forms of adjectives that happen to have
the same form as the adverb e.g. HOOLY/HOOLIER, KINDLY/KINDLIER, UNKIND-
LY/UNKINDLIER, WEAKLY/WEAKLIER. But there are just a very few genuine adverbs
that cannot be used as adjectives and yet still compare:
BRAWLY BRAWLIER BRAWLIEST
FEATLY FEATLIER FEATLIEST
FITLY FITLIER FITLIEST
LOUDLY LOUDLIER LOUDLIEST
WISELY WISELIER WISELIEST
Why these five should have been singled out for special treatment I don’t know.
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